Haunted Virginia and History

When we think of haunted Virginia, most recall ghastly images of pilgrims and plantations. It seems that there isn’t one city or county in America’s oldest English colony without a haunted house or two. Is it simply the long-reaching history of the commonwealth that has created this spectral wasteland?

While many only look to John Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and other famous Virginians for answers, Colonial Ghosts prefer to dig deeper. Native Americans had spiritual stories of their own long before the English even dreamed of a new world. Join us as we examine these mysterious and spine-tingling tales.

Hear all about Colonial Williamsburg, haunted Virginia, and everything in between on a Williamsburg ghost tour!

Natural Bridge and The Monacans

It is believed that many of the hauntings in Virginia first began with the Native Americans. They lived and hunted on the land long before Europeans arrived and passed oral traditions of spirits and stories of other unexplainable events through the generations.

When colonizers arrived in Virginia, three large groups of Woodland Natives lived there: the Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquois.

The Monacans, members of the Sioux, had little to do with the white men. But, they have an interesting legend connected to the spirits and a massive wonder called “Natural Bridge.”

Higher than Niagara Falls, Natural Bridge is one of the oldest tourist destinations in the United States. It has been included in several “Seven Natural Wonders of the New World” lists and is a National Historic Landmark, a Virginia Historic Landmark, and a member of the National Register of Historic Places.

According to legend, the Monacan Indians discovered the Natural Bridge while under attack by Algonquin tribes. When they reached the chasm of Cedar Creek and discovered no visible way to cross over, they prayed for the Great Spirit to protect them. Just as they arose from praying, a 215-foot-tall bridge appeared. Women and children crossed to safety. The men followed, but not until after they met and defeated the Algonquins.

The Powhatans

As for the Powhatan, there were thirty different tribes of Indians in the Powhatan Confederacy, 10,000 when the colonists arrived in Virginia. The Algonquian lived mainly around the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding rivers. The Powhatan built their homes out of saplings, with a hole at the top of the frame to allow smoke from their fires to escape.

They kept a fire going all of the time. Most people would imagine that this was for cooking or warmth, but they did this due to a superstition. They believed that evil spirits would come into their homes if they let their fires die.

Another tale of the Algonquian tribes concerns a curse by three Algonquin women 100 years before Jamestown was colonized. This curse concerns three large granite rocks that rise out of the water between Virginia’s shoreline and Washington, D.C.

Though the land was rich with farmland and game, and everyone did well, peace did not reign here. To the north were the Iroquois and Susquehannock, who would raid the Algonquin tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy in the Virginia area. The battles were fierce and bloody.

After a long siege, one Powhatan chief felt it was safe enough for his warriors to hunt for food. However, he forbade three of his young sons to go with them, feeling they were not old enough to defend themselves if trouble came.

The young men decided to show their father how well they could go out and bring enough fresh fish to feed the women, children, and old men in the village. They did this after the hunting party left.

The Birth of a Virginia Urban Legend

Now, the greatest abundance of fish lived in the waters near the northern shore where the Susquehannocks warriors might still be. Using a canoe, they pushed it into the river and struck out. Not long after, a Susquehannock scouting party captured them, and they were brought before the village, tortured, and killed.

Of the villagers, three young daughters of the village shaman who were in love with the young men watched with horror and growing anger.

They devised among themselves that they would cross the river to the village of the Susquehannocks to demand the warriors who killed the men they loved. They would take them back to their village to beguile them with their beauty and their fathers’ medicine. But afterward, they would kill them by a long, agonizing death.

The sisters lashed several logs into a raft and pushed it from shore. But the current from the river proved too strong and fast, and soon, they found themselves racing downstream. Still angry over the senseless deaths of the men they loved, the sisters cursed the river and said if they couldn’t cross it, no one would ever be able to do so.

The raft broke up, and they sank to their deaths. The curse became true as one flash of lightning struck the spot where they went down. That night, the storm continued, and the river’s waters went crazy.

The following morning, all grew calm as the sun rose into the sky. But three boulders had risen out of the spot where the sisters drowned, boulders that hadn’t been there before.

The Three Sisters Bridge

From that time on, the rocks take their toll on those who dare to try and cross the river there. A growing list of those victims who died is added to a growing list by local law enforcement—many fishermen, swimmers, and boaters. Old-timers claim that you can hear moaning over the Potomac during a storm, warning of another impending drowning.

In 1972, when they tried to construct a bridge to span the river, it was interrupted by one of the worst storms ever. Whitecaps surged on the water, and lightning struck the spot where the bridge supports were starting to be built. The water surged and swept away the construction framework. The funny thing was that the bridge was to be called the “Three Sisters Bridge.”

Haunted Virginia Lake

The Tale of Wa-Cheagles

Another local tale—a tragic love story—is connected to the Great Dismal Swamp of the Tidewater region. A Native maiden, Wa-Cheagles, was the daughter of the chief of one of two warring tribes in the area.

For years, she had an interesting relationship with a doe that she called Cin-Co, which meant guiding friends. It was believed that Cin-Co brought deer into the swamp each autumn.

The doe would always lead her current fawn up to Wa-Cheagles to show her at the forest’s edge near a dark brown water pool. This was the only way for the squaw to meet with the doe. Squaws were not allowed into the forest because the tribes believed this to be an evil omen.

One year, Cin-Co appeared alone, limping. She walked back into the forest until Wa-Cheagles overcame her fear and followed her. The doe led her to her fawn that had a hoof firmly on a barely living rattlesnake. Cin-Co was telling the maiden to care for her fawn as she was dying from the rattlesnake poison.

While there, Wa-Cheagles heard a moan and discovered a Native brave from an enemy tribe with a swollen leg from a rattlesnake bite. If she attended to him, she must pledge herself to him. Both then would be hunted down, to be killed by arrows with tips laced with water moccasin venom.

But she went ahead and helped him, removing her beret and tying it around his leg. Using some snakeroot she found, she applied a poultice over the wound. Ready to leave, she saw that Cin-Co had died, and the fawn had vanished. Upset, she went back to her tribe.

The White Deer in The Dark Virginia Forest

For three days, she would sneak away to tend to the brave. On the third day, her father appeared in the clearing, finding not only her but the brave, too. He carried away Cin-Co’s carcass, giving them enough time to get away.

Wa-Cheagles and her lover stopped at Lake Drummond to rest. Just then, three warriors from her tribe confronted them, determined to erase the curse from their tribe.

As the warriors drew back their bows to send their arrows flying, a dark cloud blotted out the sun, and a loud rustling noise filled the air. A flock of wild geese flew around Wa-Cheagles and her lover. The geese settled en masse on the lake until not one inch of the water could be seen. Terrified, the braves dropped their bows and arrows and bolted.

Just then, the “swamp spirit” rose out of the lake and strolled over the backs of the geese, approaching the two lovers. It told them that Cin-Co’s spirit had saved them. That Wa-Cheagles must continue the doe’s good work. The spirit magicked the maiden into a white deer with a small crimson spot on her forehead. Her lover became a charmed hunter.

The spirit told them they would roam the swamp’s forest forever, side by side, protected from both animals and hunters by rattlesnakes.

To this day, hunters and others say they have seen the white deer and the Indian brave by her side. Whenever a hunter pursues them, a rattlesnake appears on the spot where they were sighted, hissing and rattling its rattle.

Virginia’s Violent History

Jamestown was the first English settlement in Virginia. Its foundation was led by Captain John Smith, George Percy, and Gabriel Archer, among others. The Virginia Company chose this land because no Indians lived there. Of course, the Indians did come later and eventually mounted an assault against the Englishmen.

The colonists won the battle, but it taught them to fortify the fort for their own safety. Of course, some departed, and twenty-five of the men died by disease, wars, and, for the most part, famine. It was Smith who later claimed sixty-five men actually died.

More immigrants arrived, including some Germans and a Pole, as well as two women. In the winter of 1609-10, starvation came, and where there had been 215 colonists, only 60 survived. Of course, we now know that many of the dead had been eaten by surviving colonists.

There are so many reasons for the supernatural things seen and heard here today. Some years of peace and prosperity followed Pocahontas’s wedding. The favored daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan married tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe at the Citie of Henricus.

The Algonquians attacked the plantations outside of Jamestown in 1624, killing over three hundred settlers and adding more reasons for haunted spots. The American Revolution and War Between the States added more bloodshed, spirits, and legends to the land.